Sunday, November 27, 2011

Blandification

92.9 KWMT switched formats last week. Since the end of 2003, they had called themselves "The Mountain" and played AAA (adult album alternative) music, which included stuff on the fringes of mainstream pop/acoustic rock. But over the years their playlist became increasingly more bland, and now they've finally made the leap to hot AC (adult contemporary). Basically mainstream pop music from the 1980s on up. It's very bright and happy now, and even more bland.

Yeah, I know. You're probably not in Tucson and don't care. None of this would be worth mentioning except that a few years ago, I could imagine Cinder Bridge songs on the Mountain. Now, even if we managed to hit the big time and get on commercial radio, I don't see them touching our fringier or slower tunes.

Why does it seem that every other low-wattage station that wants to run counter to Corporate Programmed Radio has to run jazz? In South Bend, we don't have one good station. The closest we have is WAOR, the country's first classic rock station (that started as Album Oriented Rock, then became Adult Oriented Rock, then became All Oldies Recycled). There is nothing here for new music, unless you count WRBR "The Bear," which has music meant to be played at eleven.

Still, can anyone remember when radio was actually a vital force in driving a band's name recognition? It seems like it's always been about relentless self-promotion, unless you have the luxury of a major label pushing you. Of course, if you've got a major label pushing you, it's because you're just another product they own.

Terrestrial radio has always been bland, though. XM Radio had some really good stuff (a punk channel, an extreme metal channel) until they lost too much money and merged with Sirius. In retrospect, I can see the point where they started seeking escape options. The punk channel started playing more standard fare, that extreme metal channel got moved to the website before being cancelled altogether. The 80s alt/new wave channel would sometimes play the bands you'd expect, but hardly ever their hits. Then it changed, and then it was just a "best of the 80s" CD that didn't end.

So, yeah, bland radio is just another symptom of the heat-death of the music industry.

I don't blame people for wanting to hear songs they already know they like. I don't blame people for being attached to music they associate with an era of personal significance. Hell, I don't even blame them for liking the crap 92.9 is putting out now. I just want a line on new music that *I* like.

OK, OK. It's partially my fault. Now that XM is unavailable to me, I should be scouring the Internet for tunes, and I don't have the patience. KXCI in the car, that's about it.